


Bad CPNY

by fall_into_life



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen, Happy Ending (for once), Implied Canon-Typical Violence, Team CPNY, basically everyone from the Vytal Festival/Fall of Beacon gets mentioned, non-explicit loss of an eye
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-27
Updated: 2017-07-27
Packaged: 2018-12-07 18:06:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11629005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fall_into_life/pseuds/fall_into_life
Summary: During the assault on Beacon, Coco Adel is here to kick ass and drink coffee.And she's all out of coffee.





	Bad CPNY

In many places, at many times, Coco Adel got blinded by the chaos of the Invasion of Beacon. She saw a losing battle, and switched her focus from fighting to evacuation. She went home battered, bruised, and ended up nothing more than another name in a long list of them, a footnote for historians and gossip mags to connect to fashion legend Coco Adel.

This should not be regarded as a failure on her part. The Hunter system is meant for small teams to hunt Grimm as quickly as possible, rather than handle a domestic threat such as a terrorist attack. Retreating, according to both her peers and superiors, was the correct course of action for Coco. She had already gone above and beyond by choosing to fight rather than leaving with the first wave of refugees, and giving more would be almost inconceivable.

In this time, in this place, Coco Adel saw further. She saw wasn't happening: leadership of any kind; Beacon's teachers scattered through the streets, Atlas' military leaders nowhere in sight. She saw what needed to happen: some sort of control over the situation. And she saw what she had: about thirty aspiring Hunters, all fully-equipped and ready to fight.

“Nikos, Valkyrie, Xiao Long,” Coco barked, straightening her spine and pushing her sunglasses up her nose. “With me. Vasillias, charge up Valkyrie. Nikos, make us a platform.”

She expected arguing. She expected a fight. She expected the foreign teams, at least, to question her. Instead, there was an almost palpable sense of relief as they scrambled to do as she’d ordered. Vasillias hit the electricity on his weapon and touched it to Valkyrie’s shoulder, and Nikos took hold of some nearby scraps of metal and began fusing them together. Xiao Long trotted over after a glance at her teammates. Every other Hunter in the vicinity, including one of the visiting professors from Shade, turned to Coco.

She surveyed them, pursing her lips as she took in exactly who she had under her command. “Rose, take the rest of your team and start a patrol through the docks; get those civilians evacuated. ABRN, FNKY, you’re on sweeps. You know Gamma pattern?” Flynt Coal and Arslan Atlan both nodded, then rounded up their teams to start running. “Yatsu, you’re in charge of who’s left.” Yatsuhashi tilted his head toward her, then turned to the remaining Hunters.

“Valkyrie, how are you doing?” Coco asked, looking to the Huntresses she’d chosen. Valkyrie cackled in response, electricity dancing over her skin. Nikos finished up the platform, and Coco smirked, settling into the familiar feeling of a plan working out exactly how she wanted.

Just as she’d opened her mouth to tell the team to get on the platform, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. Coco turned to see a _motherfucking dragon_ land on top of Beacon. She stared for a few seconds, just long enough to catch a flash of movement through one of the windows, one too small to be a Grimm. Coco narrowed her eyes. Someone was up there, when all the friendlies should be out on the street fighting.

“Alright. Nikos, get us on top of the tower,” Coco said, stepping onto the metal disc. The other three followed, and Nikos pulled the metal into the air. “There’s someone up there that shouldn’t be. Xiao Long, you’re our best duelist, you keep ‘em occupied, set Valkyrie up to knock ‘em out of the tower. Turn up the heat if you have to, Valkyrie can take it.” The two younger Huntresses grinned at each other, and Xiao Long’s hair started to glow with building energy. “Nikos.” The red-haired Huntress turned to face her, one hand guiding the platform, the other gripping her spear tight. Coco bared her teeth, eyes on the white-grey Grimm on top of the tower. “We’re going to hunt a dragon.”

[*]

In the end, there was a sense of having dodged a bullet. There was a long, long debrief after Coco got her eye as patched up as it could be, during which Ozpin told her that if the four of them hadn’t stopped Cinder Fall, she would have made off with information that was of critical value to not just Beacon, but the entire world. When Coco asked about the fire Nikos had called on, a power that Coco knew damn well had nothing to do with polarity, Ozpin told her to ask Nikos herself if she wanted details, but otherwise keep the information to herself. Disgruntled and in a lot of pain, Coco had let it go.

After the bodies were counted, wounds treated, and buildings repaired, Beacon held a ceremony to honor the dead and celebrate the living. Coco sat through a list of the names of the dead, both civilian and military/Hunter, her missing eye a phantom ache in the socket. They’d given her the good drugs that morning, but they’d already starting to wear off, and the speakers made Ozpin’s words into daggers every time he hit a hard consonant.

“I’m sure you’re all quite ready to return to your friends, families, and beds,” Ozpin said, with the air of someone wrapping up a speech, “but I’ve one last award to present. To Team CPNY, I’d like to present the Briar Rose Medal of Heroism.”

Whispering broke out, and Coco frowned. She didn’t pretend to know every person there by face, let alone name, but she made a point of knowing team names from Beacon, and she’d done enough research on the foreign ones to know there wasn’t a visiting CPNY.

“Would Coco Adel, Pyrrha Nikos, Nora Valkyrie, and Yang Xiao Long please come forward?”

Coco stared, her sunglasses nearly coming off of her nose. Fox nudged her from one side, Velvet’s foot sneaking under his legs to poke her calf. She shook her head, trying to work out how exactly she’d get her noodle-legs to get her up to the platform.

Yatsu had to help her stand, but Coco got to the stage on her own. Valkyrie supported Nikos and her half-healed broken leg. Xiao Long swayed when they all lined up in parade rest. They all had bruises and cuts clearly visible, with other injuries carefully hidden, but they were all alive and standing. They’d made it, against all odds. (And a motherfucking dragon.)

Goodwitch pinned the medals to their chest, rose gold glinting in the afternoon sun, and Ozpin smiled over at them.

“CPNY fought and won against not only the terrorist Cinder Fall, but also the first dragon sighted in over two hundred years. Without their heroism, Beacon would be in rubble, instead of merely missing my office.” A wave of exhausted chuckling broke out. “The Briar Rose medal isn’t one often given, but I don’t think anyone present can argue that these young women have earned it.”

Thunderous applause erupted. Ozpin covered his microphone with one hand, and turned to regard the four of them.

“Thank you,” he said, quiet and sincere, “for being four of the most courageous, daring young people to ever pass through these doors.”

In many places, at many times, Coco Adel saw Beacon for the last time through the windows of an airship. She’d watched it burn, scrubbed its ashes from her skin, and could never bring herself to return to a place that she’d seen die. In this time, in this place, she smiled until her face ached, and counted her missing eye a small price to pay in order to keep her home safe.

All it took was some bad company, and the vision to bring it together.


End file.
